Northwest Folklife

Northwest Folklife creates opportunities for all to celebrate, share, and participate in the evolving cultural traditions of the Pacific Northwest.

Arts invigorate interpersonal connections and sense of community. When people share aspects of their culture, opportunities are created to dissolve misunderstandings, break down stereotypes, and increase respect for one another. Exposure to world cultures and the creativity of folks as a big neighborhood resonates for people of all ages.

For 45 years, Northwest Folklife has brought the Northwest Folklife Festival to Seattle Center and celebrated the extraordinary and diverse arts and cultures of the Pacific Northwest. About 250,000 people each year come to the Northwest Folklife Festival. Over 5,000 artists perform on 25 stages during the four day Festival. Over 100 communities, representing the rich diversity of our community - artistically, ethnically, and culturally - work all year round to bring these performances to you at this Festival.

You are the Folklife family. You are friends, volunteers, donors, performers, community coordinators, leaders and vendors - the core group that makes Northwest Folklife possible. What is the value to you of a day (or two or three or four) of music, dance, storytelling, crafts and food? What does this experience mean to you and to your family? Your children?

Together, we believe in the two critically important fundamentals, the CAUSE, that drives Northwest Folklife - that we celebrate, share and participate in ALL of the traditional and evolving arts and cultures of the Pacific Northwest AND that there shall be NO ECONOMIC BARRIER to participation.

While there is no ticket price to get in, Northwest Folklife is not free. It takes a full year and a cash budget to produce the Festival and other programming. This is NOT a city program - all paid for in advance. It has only been made possible and can only continue with the support of those who come each year to experience it.

Your financial support is necessary or we won't be able to continue. This year, to offset expenses, we must generate $1,300,000 in revenue. We will earn about $600,000 and we need to raise $700,000 to pay these expenses. We have set a $350,000 goal to be raised at the Festival from the people who attend. And, over the year, we need to raise another $300,000 from all of you - our Folklife family - our key supporters. Between now and May 25th - we need to raise $100,000 of that core supporter goal through our spring funding campaign underway right now. Additionally, we have secured $45,000 from city and county sources. We count another $5,000 from employee matches: please claim your match.

For the past ten years, revenue has NOT grown but expenses have. Each year, the organization committed itself to doing whatever it took to make sure that maintaining the programs were the first priority. Increased programming costs have been offset by cuts everywhere else. And those cuts added up as the costs mounted. Over the ten years, Northwest Folklife has cut non-programming costs by over 60% and never had the revenue to restore them. Frankly, there are no more cuts to be made. Indeed, too many cuts have already occurred to support the future operations. We need to change that pattern.

What is at stake?
This Festival is one of the few remaining all access, all community folk celebrations left in America. We cannot take it for granted.

Folklife's future is up to us. This is a community owned, community co-created event. If we value Folklife and want it to continue, we need to support it.

You understand and value what Northwest Folklife means to you personally, for your families and for our community. You want Folklife to continue.

Last year, less than 17% of the people who attended Folklife programs contributed in support. That is not enough. This lack of support has put Folklife at risk.

We need to expand our committed donor base and we need to increase our donation levels. Every arts and culture organization needs a core group of committed supporters to sustain the programs they create.

We need to do two things between now and May 25th, 2017. We need to meet our spring campaign goal of $100,000 so please, give in accordance to the value that Folklife has for us AND we need to share this message with our networks and build a more robust, expanded support community.